Completing the Prioritization Scheme for Keyword Research
April 25, 2011
This entry is part of an ongoing series on how to identify the best keywords to help your target customers find your company online.
The prioritization scheme can be the most contentious step in the process, as it has far-reaching consequences for keyword output and adoption. As the project sponsor and ultimately the person in charge of the output, you should actively seek out feedback from stakeholders, in particular team members who will be using the keywords.
Fortunately, prioritization schemes are not a completely unknown area; there are many well known, well tested prioritization criterion sets that have been created and refined over time by keyword research experts. Use these as a starting point while developing your own prioritization criteria.
Any prioritization process will require that large amounts of data be collected and analyzed, and the prioritization scheme will directly determine the scope and depth of this research. If time and resources are limited, you may want to choose a less rigorous, less data-driven approach to prioritization.
Furthermore, you can also structure your prioritization process so that there are rounds of short-listing, each one more focused than the previous, with each round requiring more data points on a smaller set of keywords than the previous. This approach enables you to optimize your data collection process, as the keyword researcher only has to collect the full set of data points for the most important keywords instead of doing it for every single keyword found.
Stay tuned for more information on finding the best keywords for your target audience. Next week I will provide tips for finalizing the adoption plan of action in a keyword generation project.
Additional resources:
Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) with Google keyword data (Maverick Web Creations)
Additional prioritization variables to consider (Team Altman)
Keyword selection tips (Astra Consultants)
How do I prioritize keywords for my search campaign? (clickTRUE)
Determining keyword value: A recipe for prioritizing page optimizations (SEOmoz)
Keyword generation from the inside out (Lyris HQ)
Prioritizing your keywords (SEO Site Checkup)